Phillip is behind the dubbed video clips that made rounds in social media lately. He did scenes from “Four Sisters and a Wedding,” “Wildflower,” “Labs Kita, Okay ka lang?,” an MTRCB Ad Campaign, and very recently, the kidnapping scene from Liam Neeson’s “Taken.”

He uses Davao conyo in most of his videos for added hilarity—it is fuel for instant LOLs and social media engagement. He describes this type of code switching to be comprised by 80 percent Tagalog and 20 percent Bisaya. Non-Bisaya speakers understand his videos, too! At least to an extent.

“There are also people asking me to translate certain dialogues in the comments section. If I bump into these comments, sinasagot ko naman. Pero mostly, they get it naman,” he said.

Aside from the videos, Phillip’s Facebook is filled with a bunch of other stuff that crack up his followers: from witty status updates, to shareable memes, and, ultimately, more random thoughts on the things around him.

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In this interview, Phillip talks about his early days with social media, how he feels about going viral, why he loves his mom, and why people should never forget to laugh every so often.

Philip’s “Taken” dubs screenshot

How did you get into making videos?

I’ve always been a fan of Ryan Higa and he was one of the YouTubers that inspired me to start a channel/release content. Amazing ’yung kaya niyang magpatawa without making funny faces or doing funny things? He relies on playing with a person’s train of thought lang talaga and ayun nga, he’s very unpredictable and smart. Instagram gave me easy access to uploading content via 15-second clips, too.

When was your earliest encounter with a camera? What did you film?

The first legit video content that I was a part of was back in 2013. My partner and I had a YouTube channel (The XD Channel) and we shot our first episode, “Types of Friends.” We had a few more episodes after the first one: “Social Climbing 101,” “Sibling Rivalry” and “Job Interview Fail.” Sadly, we broke up and decided to take down the channel. Forward to 2017, I started a vlog again but then sharing my activities via YT did not really tickle my fancy so I tried doing short parodies again in Facebook and I’m really happy that it gained traction. Since then, I’ve been uploading content through my Facebook.

My first Facebook video wasn’t a dubbed film. It was a video of me translating a viral video of this Visayan woman being interviewed. Throughout the parody I spoke using Davao conyo. It was really just for fun and I never expected that a lot of people could relate to the language. The video had 2,000 shares.

After that, I attempted to film myself again copying a scene from “Four Sisters and A Wedding” but I realized I can’t do justice in portraying it. So I decided to screen record the scene na lang and dub it with Davao conyo. That was my first video to hit one million views; people said they want more, so it just went on from there.

Viral videos

How do you feel about your videos going viral and gaining a million views?

Parang nakukulangang ako. Charot. Kinikilig ako talaga! I mean, I’ve always surrounded myself with people who are funny because it’s always a good feeling to laugh with friends. (I also meet earn a lot of new friends from the comment section. LOL)

What are your creative prompts? What are you usually doing when ideas hit you?

Usually when I talk to friends talaga or when I’m alone. When I talk to my friends kasi I’m naturally madaldal and I always (unconsciously) come up with funny things to say. When I’m alone naman, I like to amuse myself by thinking of random things that often surprise people.

I believe that creativity should not be rushed. I make sure na I’m satisfied with what I upload. A two-minute video dub, for instance, usually takes me a week to finish.

Have you ever been reprimanded for some of the content that you produced? How did you deal with it?

I took down a “Taga sa’n ka?” parody kasi may na offend. I put a twist in the video where nagalit ’yung nagtanong kasi seryoso pala siya: I portrayed him as someone from this famous local food delivery in Davao. After the video was uploaded, one person messaged me na parang attack daw ’yun sa business nila. So, ayun lesson learned for me tapos ti-nake down ko na lang.

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